“Hold on, and I’ll come up to you!” shouted a lineman, preparing to ascend the pole.
“No, don’t,” cried the unfortunate man.
“Have the current cut off at the power house!” yelled a voice in the crowd below.
“Yes! That’s the thing to do!” echoed a score of others.
A man ran out of the crowd to the telephone—the same telephone over which word had been sent to the power station to turn the power on for the preliminary test. In a few seconds central had given the frantic man the main electrical station.
“Cut off the power—cut off the power!” he cried. “One of the linemen on the pole is in danger of being shocked to death.”
Anxiously he waited for the reply. None came.
“Ring again, central!” he called frantically. Over the wire he heard the distant ringing of the bell in the power station. The delay seemed like an hour, though it was only a few seconds.
“Why don’t they answer? Why don’t they answer?” cried the man desperately. “Ring ’em again, central. Ring hard!”
“I am ringing hard,” responded central. “There doesn’t seem to be any one there.”